Like a Double Edged Dao
by torchide
Summary: Twist on V5C1 of the novel. When splitting off from training with XiMen Feng, Prince encounters a giant clam which after some misunderstanding, turns him into a girl! How will Prince revert this curse while keeping his identity a secret from everyone?
1. Infiltration and Crisis

**Disclaimer: 1/2 Prince and all of its characters belong to Yu Wo.  
**

_Hi all, this is my first fanfiction. I'm used to roleplaying, so forgive me if this is too wordy. Additionally, the first chapter was initially written in third person while the rest was in first so I switched it for consistency, hope it doesn't sound too awkward! Because of this awkwardness, I left the prologue in its original point of view, it is the prologue, after all._

_This chapter is meant to occur IN PLACE OF Volume 5, Chapter 1 of the novel, which equates to Chapter 39 of the manhua. This is when White Bird first sends Prince off to increase his level to better his reputation, before Central Continent is united, before the NPC revolution begins.  
_

_ Enjoy. - Torchide_**  
**

**Prologue**

It hadn't taken Prince very long at all to discover the true horrors that came with being the liege lord of a city. It seemed like an endless cycle of listening to speeches, trying on new clothes, listening to more speeches, and making speeches himself. He had a lot of support, that much was true, but there was only so much of it his sanity would allow for. Thankfully, Yu Lian seemed to realize this and immediately banked on the excuse of him being under-levelled to allow him to go blow some stress.

And of course, attempting to train brought him to an entirely new level of stress. It felt amazing to him, the feel of his blade effortlessly slicing through the neck of a high levelled dragon and even better to feel and smell the patter of blood from the creature splash against his face. However, the undisguised cries of fangirlish delight did not feel the same.

"Will you just leave me alone?" Prince roared at the people that White Bird had deemed 'skilled' enough to help him train. Whatever skill they may have originally had clearly disappeared in the face of Prince's battle presence. Scanning the crowd angrily, he spotted XiMen Feng idling around in the back, looking irritated for having been chosen to guard Prince. In a swift motion, he had darted through the crowd, grabbed his arm, and began dragging him off in a random direction.

"The hot babe and I will be training alone," he declared. "So don't you dare follow!" Immediately, Prince turned his back and began running as fast as he could, pulling XiMen Feng along behind him.

"I'm a guy!"

Immensely relieving it was, Prince noted, to be in the company of somebody who wanted to punch him in his beautiful face rather than kiss it, for a change. His mood lifted so quickly that his run soon turned into a casual stroll. Silence was a beautiful sound. It reminded him of the time spent running away from home (the others refused to let him refer to the incident otherwise) with Doll. It really made a person think: maybe running away really was the best solution.

All of a sudden, Prince instinctively leaned backwards and narrowly dodged a sword swing that would have taken off his nose. He turned to the source of the danger, staring innocently. It was too optimistic to think silence would ever last longer than a minute in his life.

"Will you _let go_ of me, sonny?" XiMen Feng snarled, bringing his sword back up for more.

Whoops. Prince immediately released his grip on the beautiful woman's shoulder. As soon as he did so, XiMen Feng sheathed his sword and began to stride in a slightly different direction – not back towards the castle – without a second glance. Intrigued, Prince jogged to catch up.

"Hey, where are you going?" he asked like an excited puppy. "You know a good place to train?"

"Like hell I'd help you train willingly, sonny. No bitch-lady to boss yer daddy around here." XiMen Feng snorted and continued on his way, ignoring the armor-clad warrior who kept trying to intercept him.

"So where-"

"Going to get rid of this damn curse, that's where," he replied, irritation clear in his voice, knowing well that Prince would never leave him alone until he got some answers. "Didn't expect yer daddy to stay like this forever, did you?" Secretly, Prince did. All the fun would be gone if XiMen Feng went back to normal.

"Aww, C-cup messing you up in combat?" he teased. "Must be a lot of extra weight, those huge things bouncing on your chest while you swing your sword, I never understood how-"

The next thing he knew, there was a sizeable bruise on his head and XiMen Feng was once again a few feet ahead of Prince. He smiled. This was nothing like the tense aura that seemed to surround Wicked, the constant paranoia that came with being around Lolidragon and Gui, and the complete annoyance that he felt around just about everyone else. For the first time in a while, Prince felt completely at ease. His head throbbed painfully, but he felt at ease.

"Soo, about that curse," he babbled, jogging to catch up once again. "You mentioned it before, right? Something about chasing Gui off a cliff and triggering a hidden quest… with a hidden boss? We get to fight a hidden boss?" Prince's eyes glowed in anticipation.

XiMen Feng stopped abruptly, making Prince nearly trip. "Look, kid," he began. "There is no _we_ in this. It's my curse, my quest, and yer daddy can finish this boss, alone. So do me a favour and fuck off, will ya?" With that, he jumped off a ledge that Prince had not been aware of (that was why he had stopped so suddenly in the first place) and slid down to the bottom, using his sword to slow his descent.

Prince was speechless. He blinked, shuffled over to the ledge, and sat down, pulling out a yao tiew from his inventory and munching on it as he waited. He might have heard the enraged screams of the she-male warrior, and maybe the clinking of swords, but it might have been his imagination. It sounded more like the sound of a sword hitting rock than two swords together, on second thought.

Five minutes later, XiMen Feng came flying through the air up the cliff at top speed and disappeared somewhere in the distance, swearing loudly as he made his exit. Prince stared. He quickly wiped his hands clean of oil on the grass and leaped down the high ledge. Since the 'owner' of the quest had already failed, the hidden boss was free game, right? He slid down a little less gracefully than XiMen Feng, forgetting to slow his descent with his sword, and ended up doing a few unintentional somersaults as he reached the bottom, landing awkwardly on his stomach, face to face with-

"…A clam?"

Yes, Prince was now staring up at what he could describe as nothing less than a giant clam. With eyes. That were clearly staring at him with an angry, piercing gaze. If this wasn't one of the most bizarre things he had seen in all of Second Life, Meatbun being one of the others, then he didn't know what was.

_Do you have a problem with clams? Prepare to be divinely punished for your insolence, small mortal._

A talking, giant clam. Even better.

Prince decided that talking was safer than gawking, and hurriedly shut his mouth and peeled himself off the ground. "No, not at all, s…ir?" He had a sudden brainstorm. If this boss was anything like Kenshin, then fighting was not the answer.

"In fact," he started, drawing himself up proudly and reaching under his cape, "I would never have a problem with talking clams as I acknowledge a meat bun as my own son!"

He brought his hand back out. It was empty. A little too late, he remembered that he had left Meatbun back at Infinite City with Doll. Then he realized that he had probably just dug himself into a deeper hole. It was evident in the giant clam's eyes that it thought that Prince was mocking him, and honestly, what else could it have been? Prince was suddenly less than confident, looking up at the huge aquatic creature with what seemed to be an impenetrable shell, and decided to keep talking.

"So, er, my teammate back there?" he said, inclining his head slightly to show who he had meant. "I love that curse you put on him. Just hilarious. I bet he secretly enjoys it too, but of course he wouldn't say anything, y'know? Being a woman is great and everything. You did a good job!" With every word, Prince inched away from the giant clam, hoping it would not notice. Little did he know how much he would regret his words in the future.

_Oh?_

Prince froze in place as the deep voice penetrated his thoughts.

_So I did a good job with my spell? I'm glad he likes it. I think it looks good on him._

He let out a sigh of relief. The giant clam began to chuckle and suddenly seemed a lot less intimidating. Maybe this boss wasn't as scary and mean as it looked. Then it continued.

_I hope you like my spell too._

"Wait, what?" Prince let out a shriek as he was suddenly enveloped in a wave of blue light. He fell backwards to the ground and rubbed his eyes, attempting to clear his vision of yellow spots. The giant clam was nowhere to be seen. "What did you just do?" he hollered, then quickly stopped as he heard the sound of his own voice. Instead of the sharp alto tones of Prince's voice, it was the slightly higher pitched voice of Xiao Lan.

"Some sort of glitch?" she mused, more to hear her own voice again and be certain than to help track her thought processes. "Odd, this shouldn't be happening this long after the game was released. But since I'm the only one, maybe they haven't ironed out everything yet? Except for XiMen Feng, but his was just part of a…"

Oh no.

Sudden realization sinking in, Prince sprinted to the closest reflective object, which happened to be the surface of the water that housed the giant clam, heart pounding rapidly, knelt down, and looked.

Staring straight back was what was undeniably the face of Xiao Lan, albeit with white hair and red eyes.

She screamed.

**Chapter One: Infiltration and Crisis  
**

I stared at the backs of the hands I knew so well, while sitting up in bed with my VR helmet on my lap. My first instinct had been to log out, but logic had slowly started to sink in, probably the logic that existed in reality but never seemed to show itself in the boundaries of Second Life. It was the middle of the night, it was too late to call anyone, and to knock on the door of her brother and ask for advice? The idea was laughable. Best thing to do, I reasoned, was to get back in game and find Lolidragon as quickly as possible. I, Feng Lan, took a deep breath, a swig of water from the mug I left by my bedside before I logged in, then put the helmet back on.

Never again would I let anybody hear me complain about the cluttered mess that was my inventory in-game. Admittedly, it was a pain to find anything that I didn't remember the name of, scrolling through endless screens of loot and random items, but I finally found exactly what I was looking for: the long, hooded cloak that I had used while playing 'dàgē' for Jing and Yun back on the Eastern Continent. I quickly pulled it on and pulled down the hood, then after thinking for a moment, unequipped my warrior's armour and donned a low level mage's robe that had dropped while training a few weeks ago as well as my trusty old masquerade mask. Unfortunately, I could think of nothing I could do about Prince's unique hair and eye colour combination, nor my strong physical resemblance to Prince. "Waah, why did I have to do this in the first place?" I complained, and set off for Infinite City. "I could have been a normal looking bishie, but _somebody_ just had to make me special."

I took my first step towards Infinite City, which… was where? As far as I could see, I was still by the ocean, which seemed to stretch for miles and miles with no signs of civilization. I also happened to be standing at the bottom of a cliff. How did I even get there?

I sighed and did what I should have done about ten minutes ago. _"LOLIDRAGON, HELP MEEEE,"_ I PMed urgently. _"I've.. got a problem…"_

I was a fool to have expected any differently, but Lolidragon did not come charging out of the city immediately to find and console me after hearing about my situation. Instead, I was making the long trek back with detailed directions left by the laughing thief who claimed to be busy with political manners that were left behind by an irresponsible overlord – right, that was me. As punishment, I was to stealthily infiltrate my own city while in disguise, sneak into my own central tower past my own guards (I had guards?) and up to Lolidragon's room inside, all the while avoiding all my teammates and _especially_ XiMen Feng who more than likely was already back, tearing up a storm in rage of being unable to defeat a giant clam.

It also didn't help that I absolutely could not answer any of my PMs. Being under a curse that left you female wasn't a terrible thing, whether or not the moonlit side effect that XiMen suffered was in effect, but what I was ultimately worried about was being recognized. The second I let my guard slip and the wrong person saw my face and recognized me was the last second of peace she would ever find in life. Seriously, though. What were the chances of almost everybody I knew in real life being born on the same continent as me? There was a solution, though. If I could just hold out long enough to find one. For the time being, Lolidragon had strongly advised that I set my player status to invisible so that everyone would just assume Prince was offline and not go searching for him.

Oh yes, extra people searching for me. Just what I needed.

Slipping past my gate guards was embarrassingly easy. Only about half of them were on shift, the others gathered in one of their watch towers playing gambling games most likely. Being so thinly spread out, although I was completely unequipped, my high warrior's strength stat was more than enough to knock two or three out with quiet punches to the head and I sprinted into the city before anybody noticed something amiss. This was ridiculous; for all I knew, my city could have been invaded numerous times already. I made a mental note to bother White Bird into increasing the quality of guard patrols. I had often thought it was strange the city's population was increasing so rapidly, now I knew.

Things were going a little too smoothly. This was strange. Different in gender I may have been, my character was still registered under the name 'Prince' which made entry into the central tower effortless. My high agility stat allowed me to drop in neatly behind the guards, just the same as I had often done while sneaking out to restaurants just before boring meetings. However, I became infinitely more cautious the moment I was inside. Members of Odd Squad, Dark Emperor, and the Rose Team lived in this tower and would be parading through the halls at completely inappropriate times. If Rose, my real life cousin, for instance, was to see my face, then all hell would break loose. I nervously pulled my hood lower down my face.

With no other approach, I decided to treat the situation like an arcade game. I had some general knowledge of the building and knowledge to some degree about which were the more commonly traversed corridors. For a moment, I also considered that I was now the suspicious person in a cloak. The idea was to never act suspiciously while wearing a cloak, but all things considered, that was hard to do.

Things were going well. That was, until I carelessly walked head first into Wicked. Before I even had time to panic or draw a weapon – which would probably have given me away in a second, so that was a good thing – a sword touched the base of my neck.

"Who are you? If you're here to hurt Prince, your life ends here," he hissed. My eyes widened, it had been a long time since I found myself on the receiving end of Wicked's wrath. I had forgotten how intimidating he could be. The last time this had happened was the time we had first met, before we had officially teamed up for the adventurer's tournament. So much had happened since then. Although Wicked was strong, Prince was stronger. Just one problem: I wasn't Prince right now, and to reveal my identity? I considered; it was just Zhuo-gēgē, after all, but the silent commotion drew attention and more people were quickly coming – I had to get out now.

Staying silent, I left my weapon unsheathed and abused my higher agility to twist out of his grasp. I held the hood of my cloak on with one hand, kicked off the wall in that super-villain style I had often admired but never got the chance to try, and sprinted off for the stairs. So much for being stealthy. I heard Wicked yell for reinforcements some distance behind me; soon, all of my very own specially employed security guards would be after my blood. Oh painful irony.

"_Lolidragon, I don't care what you're busy with now, but if you don't come now, I'm going to die to my own bodyguards," _I PMed frantically, turning on my messenger system briefly. _"Do you have any idea how hum—"_

I was cut off suddenly by the recipient of my PM forcefully dragging me into a room by the back of my cloak and shoving me under a desk. Seconds later, a mass of people stormed past, one warrior pausing at Lolidragon's room. "Ma'am, by any chance did the intruder pass through here?" Seeing the irritated expression on her face as she moved sheets of paper from one side of the desk to the other, the guard muttered a quick apology then ran off in a feeble attempt to apprehend me.

Her timing could not have been better. "Where did they all come from?" I asked, figuring it was safe to come out. I crawled out slowly from under the desk and shuffled over to a spot behind the door, not trusting it to stay shut. "And what took you so long?"

"Nobody better to test the liege lord's new security than the liege lord himself." Lolidragon smirked, then started forwards. She yanked down my hood and stared at my face with a puzzled expression, easily recognizing the eyes as distinctively belonging to Prince especially by the tell-tale colouring. "Yeah, this could be trouble for you," she agreed.

"Can't you talk to the higher-ups? Get them to remove the curse? Protect the identity of their beloved spokesperson?" Now that I was out of immediate danger, I began to fully realize the long term implications of my situation and started to panic. I grabbed Lolidragon's shoulders for support. "Anything?"

"You're that afraid of being recognized, huh," Lolidragon replied, surprisingly sympathetic. "I can talk to them, but I doubt they could do anything – I mean, this was a hidden quest. You did get beaten by a boss, right? Even after I told you to keep your bodyguards with you at all times. Not a glitch or anything that they can undo just like that."

"So, in other words…"

"This is all your own fault. Idiot."

Lolidragon's cruelty knew no bounds. She did, however, seem to realize the seriousness of the situation, and had prepared help. "Well, for starters, you can't keep wearing that cloak around. Even I want to arrest you, don't mention your own guards," she started, darting around me and stripping me with less eagerness than usual, just as I felt less violated than usual. "And mage equipment? You have the right idea, but…" She trailed off and stared at the completely mismatching pieces. Flame-magic enhancing boots, wind-magic enhancing cloak, with a set of ice-enhancing bracers?" The system of Second Life would not allow that much diversity; such combinations of equipment only lowered the overall stat, which was the reason most mages were driven into specialization. "Do you know a single thing about the mage class? Have you _ever_ been to the official website, like I told you to when we first met?"

"No?"

That earned me a painful smack to my head and I eyed Lolidragon dryly as she continued to pull off my clothes. "I thought your urges to undress me were only for my male self," I muttered, but allowed the now taller girl (Prince was taller than Lan) to equip me properly and I listened properly as she explained the basics of the mage class. I was to be a newbie elf mage, specializing in ice magic with a sub-element of thunder ("So nobody will ask you to demonstrate," Lolidragon explained,) who had moved into Infinite City using the influence of her brother, classmates, and childhood friend.

"But what about, you know, this?" I gestured vaguely at my face that was still distinctly Prince's face, especially with my blood red eyes and snow white hair. "Whose idea was it to make me so distinctive looking, anyways…"

My comments earned me yet another painful smack on the head which seemed to be swelling into a small lump. "With the number of people who know you in real life, it's pretty much impossible for you to stay unrecognized," said Lolidragon. "So it's best if you just be, you know, _you_. It just means less acting for you because honestly, you're lousy at it. As long as you don't try any magic or reveal that you are actually a warrior, you should be fine staying out of combat. And you'll be staying out of combat if you know what's good for you."

I shot her a glare, but breathed a sigh of relief. If Lolidragon said I would be fine, then despite any mixed feelings that I had for the hidden GM as a trustworthy human being, I was probably going to be okay.

It was around that time that Wicked conveniently burst into the room. "Lolidragon, the intruder got in and out without a trace! All quarters have been searched, she's nowhere to be found, and all of the watchtowers reported nothing! What could they be – "

As he caught sight of me stepping out from behind the door where I had been standing, glaring at him with red eyes and equally red blood dripping from my nose, his jaw dropped, rendering him incapable of further speech. He only managed to find his voice again a few seconds later. "So, you were the intruder… Xiao Lan?"

I gracefully wiped the blood from my face and tucked a strand of hair behind my ears. "That's Feng Xiao Xiao you're addressing. I'm a mage and brand new to this game, so won't you pleaaaaaaase help me, Zhuo-gēgē?" I cajoled, batting my eyelashes in a calculated way that was once very familiar in a game called The World while leaning towards him with my hands clasped. Just because I hated such actions so much that I joined a new game as the opposite gender and got myself into a heap of trouble, it didn't mean I didn't remember how to fully control men with just a few words.

"She's better at this than I thought," Lolidragon remarked dryly as Wicked blushed and sputtered, still unable to comprehend exactly what it was he saw in front of him. Brash and naïve as Prince was, the girl was quite good at acting when the situation called for it. Or was the innocence of Prince an act, and the manipulative girl in front of her the true reality?

"I… you… What is going on?" Wicked exclaimed.

**Thanks for reading! Even a small review goes a long way. :)**


	2. Two Faces of a Coin

**Disclaimer: 1/2 Prince and all its characters belong to Yu Wo.**

_Let it be known that accent marks on name suffixes are a pain to type. Thank you so much for your interest in this story, I hope it only gets better! Also, to clarify, this story takes place **in place of** V5C1, so before Prince unites Central Continent, then gets all emo and learns about the NPC revolt. I just introduced An Rui earlier so this plot could happen.  
_

**Chapter Two: Two Faces of a Coin  
**

"This is Feng Xiao Xiao, she's Wu Qing's twin sister. She's an elven mage, and she's pretty new to this game, but is here to provide temporary assistance to the operations of Infinite City. Please welcome her!"

I never thought I'd be standing awkwardly behind Zhuo-gēgē once again, waving awkwardly and reintroducing myself to all of my teammates and friends. There just so happened to be a meeting finishing up in the courtyard, and he thought it would be the easiest time to introduce me to my friends. It was the most bizarre feeling and I felt a stab of guilt with every smile presented, with each introduction was a new lie told. I hated to deceive others. Manipulate, take advantage of, challenge, or humiliate? Sure thing. Even this whole double identity business with Prince that I had going on never really hit me this hard – as far as I was concerned, we were two completely different people with two completely separate lives.

There was just that one thing though: Zhuo-gēgē. I was incredibly thankful for him now with his help in further weaving the lie I presented to all those who trusted me, taking some of the responsibility from my shoulders, but he was a constant reminder to me of the life I led outside the game.

Especially since the incident with the grinding and falling off of cliffs which I wish I could erase, he has never once treated me like the way we met in the dragon's valley, as a rival, an equal. He has cared for me as if I were still the fragile little Lan I am – no, I _was_ – in real life. I didn't realize it at the time, but it never sat well with me, it was a constant reminder of the weak, helpless female I had made it my goal to separate from.

And it had worked! Until now.

No, no, that wasn't right either. Here I was, stuck as a helpless female pretending to be an even more helpless female, seeking help because I had no other choice. Because I left myself with no other choice. It was my own decision to keep this secrecy, and it had wound itself up to an irreversible point where removing the secrecy would do more harm than good.

And… I don't think I was at all capable of being that honest and reaping the consequences. I was brash, direct, honest, and impulsive as Prince, very naturally so, but in my female form, fully exposed with much more to hide, I could do no more than make simple introductions and smile.

To me, the identity of Prince was like a double edged sword. Or, in my case, a double edged dao. That specific remark had come from Wicked and Lolidragon after the incident in the latter's office, I never have and never will be at all clever with my words.

How exactly had that incident worked out? Wicked, reliable as always, got over his initial shock better than I'd thought, or better than me, at least. Like during character creation, I had little to no contribution in determining my story, how I was to live in Infinite City (if at all) as a female, how to reverse my curse, how to mask my appearance ("Lolidragon, this is all your fault!") and how to best present me to the others in a way that made me look less of yet another rabid Prince fangirl eager to move in.

Contrary to popular – or just Lolidragon's – belief, I wasn't completely clueless in the ways of magic, just Second Life's version. In fact, this was my first time in an MMO game where I _wasn't_ playing a mage. I knew how to hold a staff which was quickly fetched from Infinite City's own armoury (we have an armoury?) although it felt awkward at first. That was the first step; it wouldn't do for me to go bashing people on the head with a staff holding it as if it were an oversized kitchen knife. Being Wu Qing's sister and Wicked's childhood friend, not to mention Gui's own student meant that I was all but desensitized to beautiful men.

This was entirely true, only I still did feel a tinge of narcissism when I looked into a mirror before concerts (What? I was _gorgeous_, was I not allowed sneaking a peek?) and Gui? Well, I generally avoided looking at him in class as much as I could. More eye contact meant more attention, and I did not want attention.

That left the most painfully obvious issue of disguising my snow white hair and blood red eyes which just screamed 'either I'm Prince or I'll die trying to be Prince', both messages which weren't favoured for my image to project. Hair wasn't a huge issue, Lolidragon had it tied into a mage hood within seconds, but no affordable item that she could think of would change the tone of my eyes.

That was when Wicked had the brilliant idea of enlisting Lu Jing into the disguise squad. It wasn't as if I had anything to hide from her, and within the hour, she had modified her illusion spell to tint my eyes to a paler shade of red. It was now more of a reddish brown color, close enough to my original to escape notice. "If you're going to be using those every day, I'm going to need more ingredients soon, you know," she warned.

"Ingredients?"

Jing sighed dramatically. "Dear Lan, this is a spell that changes your physical appearance. Does any other feature of Second Life let you change your appearance, or even make a new character? No!"

"Dammit Jing, get to the point!"

"That's why this spell is so rare; it's extremely difficult to prepare and can only be done by a genius like me!" she scoffed. "Of course, it's so incredibly difficult that even I need special ingredients to make this special _fu_! It's not like the other illusion that happens only in your mind, it affects the minds of everybody who looks at you!"

"Okay, ingredients, I'll just add that to my list of things to worry about," I huffed, resigned to my fate and wondering if just leaving Infinite City until the curse was broken would be an easier alternative.

"Just remember to remove the _fu_ and reequip your normal equipment after nightfall," Lolidragon warned. "And stay out of sight when you do."

"Huh?"

"The curse should be the same as XiMen Feng's, right? That means you turn back into Prince during the night, in which you have half your normal time to attend to all your duties as Infinite City's overlord which I refuse to do for you." Lolidragon shot a warning glare at Wicked who looked just about ready to volunteer for my duties.

Right! That's why I couldn't just run away from my own city, which happened to house multitudes of people who knew me in real life as a studious girl who shared absolutely no similarities with and was definitely not the same person as their teammate Prince apart from their mutual love for food. Upon realizing this, I also thought of another major problem.

"XiMen Feng. There's no way he'll be able to keep his mouth closed during this. I was with him until he got blown away by the giant clam, once he finds out that Prince is mysteriously absent while the sun is up, he'll know."

Wicked stroked his chin thoughtfully. "He hasn't been seen since he took off with you, actually. Maybe he was closer to Moon City and respawned there, and was afraid of showing his face to you for a while?"

"Afraid is good," I nodded.

"Either way, I'll have him assigned further away from here, maybe outside the gates? I can't imagine that being good for the reputation of our city, though…"

Jumping back to the present situation, my expression was frozen as I locked eyes with Wolf-dàgē. "It's nice to finally meet you in game," I said as politely as I could, but in reality, I was terrified by his smile. It was warm and reassuring as always, but there was something in his eyes, a small twinkle of recognition that seemed to penetrate deeper than I'd have liked.

Thankfully, he didn't say anything incriminating or mention or past meeting at all, but only smiled and patted me on the shoulder, allowing me to move onto… oh no. Gui.

"Greetings, Professor," I said, imitating Yang Ming's own introduction as best as I could. Before this meeting, I had figured that I would have to force any familiarity that would inevitably be identified to become attributed to being Wu Qing's twin sister. Yes, even if that meant acted like Yang Ming. _Shudder_. Secrets came with many sacrifices.

"Hello, student Lan," he replied with every bit of professionalism of a professor, and none of the idiotic bard that I was so used to. For a moment, I could only blink in astonishment, but quickly remembered that I was never supposed to have met Gui the idiotic bard before and was face to face with my literature professor for the first time since our awkward date.

Jing, I really, really hate you.

"I trust that Second Life is going well for you?" he continued. "Infinite City is a great place to start, I hope you'll find everything you need here."

Okay, this was way too weird. What was _wrong_ with him? How exactly was it that he was able to be so courteous and professional and… and _proper_, all while sporting that long hair and waltzing around in the bard getup that made him so devilishly handsome?

And why hadn't anybody else commented on this? Just because I, Prince, wasn't there to say something didn't mean somebody else couldn't correct it. I stared beseechingly at Wicked behind me who replied with a very confused gaze.

"Um, yeah, it's great!" I quickly replied, turning back around but avoiding eye contact. "I've got a lot of good friends here and my brother, too. It's a beautiful city; you must have all worked really hard on it!"

Flattery was a key ingredient in manipulating men. It was an easy way to work a foothold into the control panel of their mental processes and keeping Gui's brain away from associating his student Lan with his crush Prince was imperative. Unfortunately, before I could establish this foothold, I was either rudely interrupted or completely saved by an interjection from Lolidragon.

"It's starting to get dark, it's nearly time for our foreign affairs department meeting," she said, grabbing my elbow. "Didn't you want to meet up with your brother before it starts? I can show you where it is."

Right. Darkness. Transformation. XiMen Feng was right, it was damn troublesome.

"Yeah. It was nice meeting you all," I said as I turned and walked back with Lolidragon, forcing my head to turn and flash a very fake cocky smile in the direction of my teammates which I would hopefully be seeing again in less than an hour.

As soon as they were out of hearing range, I let my smile drop and affixed a scowl to my face. "Damn giant clam… Forget just roasting it, I'm going to turn it into pasta sauce when I find it again, "I muttered. "_Delicious_ pasta sauce. And I'll even donate it to Infinite City's food stores to save Yu Lian-dàsăo some funding!"

"Tell me everything you remember about this boss, I'll find you all the information I can," Lolidragon said reassuringly. "From your description, it doesn't seem like an easy boss to beat. Just look at how quickly it finished off XiMen Feng. He's not even that weak, either, if you don't compare him to yourself…"

As soon as the very random appearance of his student had finished, the shape of Gui's eyes transformed into very watery jelly beans and he latched onto Wolf. "Wolf-gē, where's Prince?" he whined, staring pleadingly up at the equally clueless beastman.

Wolf himself was rather confused at this point in time. Feng Lan was Prince… wasn't she? So how could she have her own in-game avatar? It was true that she herself had said, once upon a time, that she was a mage. After that day, he had always just assumed she was bluffing, but maybe she wasn't? No, none of this made any sense. She wasn't new to this game, even if she was a mage, and why was it that nobody had ever seen her until now?

"I don't know. I think he and XiMen are still out training. Last I remember, Yu Lian was complaining about him being under levelled, so that's probably it."

_Hmm… Didn't I hear XiMen Feng boasting loudly about going to beat a tough boss? That sounds just like the sort of thing Prince would jump in for._ However, Wolf kept his thoughts to himself as he patted the pouting bard on the shoulders comfortingly.

"Why can't I train with Prince too? I finished all my work early, I want to help keep him safe! Wolf-gē, you have to help persuade your wife to let me go!"

Wolf sighed, but was fortunately saved by the sudden appearance of Prince, looking a little ruffled but striding quickly into the courtyard followed by Lolidragon. Prince. How could he be here? Wolf looked up at the sky which now clearly indicated that it was night, and the sun had finished set

"Your Highness! Gui missed you so much!" Gui immediately cried out, leaping from his current position towards me, whose expression was still stiffly frozen from our earlier encounter. It only took me about a quarter of a second to unfreeze at the sight of stupid, brainless Gui on a mission to touch me for no reason, and I didn't hesitate to swing a fist and stop him in his tracks. I even took extra care to step on his body as I made my way over to the center.

"Everybody, I have an announcement to make," I called loudly, glaring at Lolidragon for ever suggesting the idea, but I knew that this was really necessary if I was to keep my identity a secret. It wouldn't do at all, for Prince to conveniently appear only after dark and a girl who looked just like Prince appearing right as he left. Days and nights were a lot shorter in Second Life, or a lot of people would never be able to experience the Second Life day if playing in their sleep. The changes would be in close proximity to each other, and people weren't stupid; on the contrary, some of these people were stupidly smart.

Prince had to disappear for now, until I could get this little problem solved.

"I'm going on vacation in real life and I won't be able to get online for the next few weeks," I said. "I'm sorry, as the city's liege lord, I shouldn't be leaving for this long, but I trust that you'll be able to run the city well even in my absence. It's really unavoidable, I'm sorry."

Hell, if they could _build_ a city in less than a month with the absence of their liege lord, they'd be perfectly fine. Not to say that I wasn't important! The city would never be the same in two week's absence of my intelligent paperwork reviews. And honestly, two weeks without a photo shoot sounded absolutely glorious.

Still, the thought of leaving my city, even if I wasn't really gone, depressed me to no end. It must have shown on my face as Doll hugged me tightly in temporary farewell, as Yulian frowned instead of smiling at me, as Wolf-dàgē patted me on the shoulder with a strange look in his eye, as Gui latched himself tightly onto my back, tears streaming down his face.

About a minute later, tears were streaming down his face for an entirely different reason as he laid defeated on the ground.

**Thank you all so much for the favourites, watches, and reviews! More reviews are always better, though, I love hearing about what you thought of the chapter!**


	3. How Hard Could It Be?

**Disclaimer: 1/2 Prince and all of its characters belong to Yu Wo, and in this chapter, a small amount of dialogue was borrowed from English translations of the original novel by Prince Revolution.**

_Thanks so much for your support, guys! I've had the first half of this chapter written for a while, but then I got really busy with another bit of writing I had to do for something else. Anyways, here it is, please enjoy!  
_

**Chapter Three: How Hard Could It Be?**

I was completely accustomed to seeing Gui in real life on a day to day basis while running around abusing him in game as Prince, so I didn't put any thought into the way I casually strode into class, perfectly normally, not noticing the conscious attempts at making eye contact Gui was giving me. After all, I was used to keeping a low profile; that meant avoiding all necessary contact with the esteemed Professor Gui, we were only acquainted on a professional basis. Jing and Yun greeted him cheerfully as the three of us strode into the classroom together while I only threw a small polite nod his way as usual, until I noticed the strange stare he was giving me.

Right. We were friends now, in game. We lived in the same city, anyways.

"Morning, Professor," I said casually, glancing back at him and continuing on without blinking. From what I had gathered over the past few months, Professor Min was nothing like the bard Guiliastes and he did not like to be associated with his real life self. Unconsciously, perhaps because I had the same feelings towards Prince and Lan, I was doing him a favour by treating him as respectfully and professionally as possible, while on the surface, I really didn't think any other form of greeting or special treatment was necessary. It was just stupid Gui, who I saw multiple times a day and more than multiple times during the night.

Of course, to Gui himself, my behaviour must have been mind boggling. He had the decency to not continuously stare at me throughout the entire lecture which I was barely listening to while formulating plans of revenge against the clam monster in my mind, but his mind was entirely focused on the wonder that was Feng Lan. From the way she had been introduced to him in game, she sounded precisely like just another fangirl using her connections with influential people from Infinite City to get closer to Prince and Guiliastes, the infamous bishies of Central Continent, but nothing about her behaviour suggested as such.

To him, it almost seemed like I was purposefully avoiding eye contact with him, pretending our in-game meeting had never happened. Gui felt as if his student Feng Lan was trying her very best not to be recognized as the girl in game from last night. In reality, it was exactly that reasoning. I avoided attracting notice from Professor Min as best as I could so as not to be recognized as Prince, but now I had nothing to hide. Or was it that I had even more to hide? Either way, old habits die hard.

Gui really must have been trying hard to figure me out that day, from the way I felt his eyes on me when my back was turned (a very familiar feeling in the world of Second Life, believe me) to the way they quickly shifted a different direction when I brought my own to meet his gaze. I shrugged, I really couldn't have cared less what Gui thought of me, but as far as I was concerned, the sooner this treatment or analysis of me was finished and the less he learned, the better.

I hadn't forgotten that he was, unbelievably, a genius with an IQ of 200. It had taken a lot of good quality acting so far to keep him from the truth and I wasn't about to stop now.

Why couldn't I just tell him the truth? He was a good guy; I had learned and confirmed that fact many times over in game. He would keep my secret. He would probably even help me come up with a way to break the curse. In fact, Gui would finally leave me alone once and for all once he learned that I was a woman. Telling him would be nothing but beneficial. So… why?

Clearly, hunger was giving me delusional thoughts and asking my brain dumb questions that it couldn't answer, so I loudly announced my hunger once clear of the classroom and dragged Yun to the vending machines with me.

Back in the classroom, a certain young professor was pondering the reactions of a student. Interesting, very interesting, he thought. Feng Lan hadn't reacted at all the way he was expecting her to. It was natural to assume that she had joined Infinite City just to get closer to a bunch of beautiful men – that certainly seemed to be the intention of most female players who did just that. But instead of showing annoying amounts of familiarity the very next day, she acted as if absolutely nothing had happened, and if anything, seemed even stiffer and more distant than she normally was.

Interesting.

These circumstances reminded him of the time when he had first met Prince, actually. His actions at the start were completely misleading in regards to his real feelings. Why did he look at Gui like that if he _wasn't_ a homosexual? This intrigue only caused Gui to act as such; be it to find an answer, or for simple amusement, Gui himself wasn't sure of the reason he began toying around with Prince, only to have everything escalate into… this.

So, why did Feng Lan come to Infinite City at such a random time, if not because of the ridiculous amounts of beautiful men? From today's observation, he noted that the girl did not mention Prince's name once, nor had he heard her mention him at all during their brief meeting last night. Nor had she mentioned Second Life at all during their entire class session, despite having two friends who he imagined would be more than eager to share their knowledge of the city they lived in.

The two of them had even gone a date before, he remembered with a jolt. The circumstances were familiar: at first, he believed that Miss Lan was just another infatuated female, and he was only on the date as a special favour to a friend to let her down gently. Instead, he found himself having a heart to heart conversation with somebody he barely even knew, exposing all that he had once previously kept locked up inside his heart.

There was something strange about Feng Lan, and he was going to figure out what it was.

This was perfectly reasonable for a young, charismatic professor with an IQ of 200, right? Then why did Gui have such a strong feeling of apprehension? Just a girl. Just a student. Just a rock. How hard could it be?

_Online…_

Lolidragon's logic was that people were less likely to miss me as Feng Xiao Xiao during game nights than they were to miss Prince during game days. Game days were much longer than nights, but if Prince was missing for even the shortest time, panic and shenanigans were had. I could barely remember the last time, before _the incident_, that I was able to wander around the game as freely as I currently was. It was ironic that the real weight of being a liege lord crashed down around me as I was taking a temporary break from being the liege lord, though.

I attended a city meeting beside my brother (who took some ridiculous amount of beating at the hands of Lolidragon before fully comprehending my situation and who was still in denial about my identity as Prince), and never before had I fully understood how much revolved around, well, me. All this time, I had always felt a little guilt at being the liege lord; while my friends were working hard for the sake of our city, I was nothing but a useless figurehead. By the end of the meeting, I, like everybody else who had attended, wished for the return of our figurehead.

Prince was a strong, powerful figure that kept Infinite City together. He was the embodiment of power from unity, and without his presence, we found it hard to make any lasting decisions at all. I never realized how my most insignificant comments provided so much certainty towards the decisions of various departments. In the meeting I had just finished, not very much had been accomplished due to his – no, _my_ – absence. Would the liege lord approve of this? Are the liege lord's future plans for this city compliant with this strategy?

And now I understood why Madam White Bird was so keen on improving my reputation.

All this in mind, I really wasn't certain I could handle the responsibility. My teammates, my friends, my entire city. People I knew, people I had never seen before: all looking up to me with a reverence that chilled me to the bone. Prince is not perfect, I am not perfect. It seemed that expectations of me had further skyrocketed in my absence.

For the time being, I had to focus on the problem at hand. I had to quickly defeat a giant clam monster so I could go back to being an almighty figurehead for people to worship. How hard could it be?

_Sob!_

It turned out that Lolidragon was much craftier than I gave her credit for. I was a girl and could no longer be liege lord Prince, but she made it very clear that she wasn't about to babysit my city for me and I would still have to pull my own weight. This came together with my cover story very nicely actually and I found myself quickly inducted into the Foreign Affairs department with a very disgruntled Wu Qing. Others had been very suspicious of Lolidragon allowing a brand new player into an administrative role of Infinite City, but my brother had greeted me with the most suspicion.

I'm actually not sure whether it was because he was mad at me for all that I had done to him under his alias, which would have been strange because I have never known my brother to hold grudges, or because he was mad at himself for being so incredibly dense, which he was. Either way, he refused to make eye contact with me or even Lolidragon for some odd reason, even when she glared darkly at him nonverbally warning him to go along with our plans. Yes, Lolidragon had told him of my identity in advance after a bit of prompting on my part, as I was fully aware of the damage he, his big mouth, and his knowledge of me supposedly being a tranny in game and being the first player to ever log on could do to my cover story.

"She's a people person. Trust me, you won't regret this," Lolidragon reassured the department, and eventually, I was accepted into their ranks.

Actually helping out with the running of my own city was much harder work than I had expected. I never realized quite how many city threats by other large clans or guilds had been avoided completely with careful handling, and how much work was involved with facilitating fair trade in and out of the city. I wasn't even sure where to start – how could I help out, was there paperwork to amend? – but Lolidragon shot me a look that clearly said to sit down and stop trying to make a fool out of myself.

One meeting, just about two days after I had re-joined the ranks of Infinite City, I made myself quite useful.

"Sorry to interrupt, but there is a problem," White Bird said as she burst into the room. "Some clan leader is waiting at the gates to the palace right now. He claims he wants to join Infinite City, but then Nan Gong Zui recognized a man in his party."

"So what's the problem?" Wu Qing asked, eyebrows furrowing.

"This man is Cold Fox, the third highest ranked player in all of Second Life. He's also a soloist. If he is suddenly travelling with this clan, it means-"

"It means that they're looking for trouble," I finished for her, rising from my seat and glaring not at White Bird, but at the prospect of people trying to make trouble in _my_ city. Who did they think they were?

White Bird stared at me blankly, not recognizing my face, but nodded and continued her report. "Yes, exactly. They are demanding a duel with Prince, the strongest warrior in this city. Obviously, he's not here at the moment, but we can't just turn them away either! Think of what it would do to our reputation!"

Oh, so they just wanted to knock me off my throne, eh? I saw red. Barging into my city, flashing money at some highly ranked player just for the sake of discrediting me in front of my people? What gave them the right to challenge me? If I had been Prince instead, I likely would have jumped in head first, but because I wasn't, I would just have to handle things in a more roundabout way.

"Leave it to me," I said, swiftly exiting the room while PMing Kenshin whom I had left alone since the incident. To be given the chance to diplomatically kick somebody out of a city? This was what I had been missing. And this, this really wasn't hard.

White Bird made a surprised noise and made to follow me out, only to be stopped by a smiling Lolidragon. "Don't worry, she's got things from here," she reassured.

"… Who _is_ she?"

"A people person."

After reminding Kenshin about twenty times, nineteen which were completely unnecessary considering how infrequently he spoke in the first place, about how to show no recognition towards me, not to call me Prince, and to show up as soon as possible to the clearing in the courtyard, Nan Gong Zui and I were leading the small group of challengers to the scene of battle.

"Are you sure this will work, Miss…?" he muttered softly to me, quite surprised and sceptical about the sudden turn of events, but for reasons he could not explain to himself, deciding to go along with it.

"Feng Xiao Xiao," I reminded him. "Of course it will! Kenshin is Prince's personal bodyguard; do you really think that Prince would trust just anybody in that position? Don't worry, everything will be fine, Zui!"

Zui nodded, but had many lingering thoughts. Where did this girl get all of her naïve uncertainty? It was a known fact around Infinite City that Kenshin didn't respond to any PMs except for Prince's, so how would a completely brand new girl to Infinite City manage to persuade him to listen? Additionally, Zui had no doubts about Kenshin's astounding skills which he had last seen demonstrated during the invasion, but he had checked and scoured the rankings for his name and the results were conclusive – Kenshin was a nobody. Not even a low ranking nobody. A complete nobody.

Finally, they had arrived. I stepped forwards confidently, seeing Kenshin waiting calmly in the clearing as he had been instructed to do, and I turned back to face the men. Their faces ranged from calm neutrality on Cold Fox's face, to scepticism on the clan leader's face and polite surprise on Zui's. Smiling, I began the introductions. "This is Infinite City's best fighter, Kenshin. I think you'll find him more than capable of rising to your challenge."

The battle was no contest. Obviously, I had complete confidence in Kenshin, who despite being ridiculously strong, was actually an NPC boss who would take an entire team of strong people working in close coordination together to defeat. It was clear from the very first strike that solo player Cold Fox had no chance, as a lone wolf. Lone wolf? Lone fox?

Upon seeing Cold Fox's utter defeat, the clan leader made a strangled noise, spun around to be met with the glares of Nan Gong Zui and our city guards, and were quickly escorted out of the city, leaving me alone in the clearing with the two very strong and silent warriors who seemed to be engaged in one of the most pathetic one word conversations I had ever heard.

As I approached the pair, Kenshin's eyes narrowed at me and he silently backed off, allowing me to address Cold Fox directly. Smiling at him, I offered him a hand up which he unsurprisingly ignored. "Abandoned by your leader, coming to make trouble in Infinite City, what happens with you now?" I asked.

"He is no leader of mine," Cold Fox spat. "Do what you wish."

I frowned. How completely boring! I had the feeling that even if he were wrapped in scalding hot chains and lowered into a pit of killer bees while coated in honey, he wouldn't make a sound. Maybe he was secretly like Kenshin, and unable to take the cold? We could have wind and ice mages freeze him in a room where he would be left shivering, only to immediately latch onto the first person who walked in. But maybe not, because his name was Cold Fox – maybe he had a different weakness? What if he had a really low tolerance for heat? Then, if trapped in an extremely hot room with one-way mirrors for easy observation, would he remove his thin black shirt and show off his beautifully toned, yet subtle, warrior's muscles?

No, no, no. That would be completely useless and benefit Infinite City in no way at all. I shook the thoughts of delicious, shirtless Cold Fox from my mind, reminding myself that Kenshin was my pet and I could command him to do anything at any time if I really wanted. "Why are you here?" I asked him instead, turning back to the situation at hand.

"To challenge the strongest," he replied, eyes sparkling with emotion I hadn't previously thought he was capable of.

Now this was an interesting chance I couldn't pass up. "If you join Infinite City, you can challenge Kenshin here whenever you like," I offered. Kenshin shot me a glare. "Just think about it, and find me once you've made up your mind," I smiled as I walked away, eager to report to Lolidragon the results of my work.

To my surprise, he called me back. "Wait," he said, sitting up with some effort, then paused. "Who are you?"

"I'm…" I paused, momentarily distracted by the question. "I'm Feng Xiao Xiao of the Foreign Affairs department; didn't you get it the first time?"

Cold Fox's eyes narrowed. "That's not what I meant. You are no mage; who exactly are you?"

A sweat drop rolled off my forehead, and I turned away with fake indifference. "Kenshin, remove him from Infinite City grounds until I clear things with White Bird and Zui,." I left in a hurry.

"…" was Cold Fox's reply, and a while after I had left, he turned instead to Kenshin who remained standing nearby. He stared questioningly into his eyes for a while, then asked the same question.

"Why does she command you?"

Kenshin did not answer, but also turned away, contemplating the question. As a relatively new pet and one at such a high level, he was in no way bound by the very low loyalty level he held towards Prince. But no matter how many times he questioned Prince's very questionable orders, he had never gone against them.

"Trust," he finally decided on, before walking away and pausing when Cold Fox did not follow

"Tea?"

**Thanks for reading! I didn't want to be copying the original novel, word for word, in terms of the Cold Fox vs Kenshin battle, so I didn't. Now, because I love reading about what you think is going to happen in my reviews, I'm going to leave you with a prompt: Fairsky. What do you think of her? How do you think she will tie into all of this? Please review!**


End file.
